Hey, guys. How about this east coast weather? On Wednesday, I was out running in shorts and a t-shirt. This morning (Saturday), I was digging my car out of the ice. Crazy.
I’ve been VERY level in my weigh-ins over the past week. I haven’t been doing as well with my workouts (gym closed) or diet (I’m fat). So I’m just happy that I’m not gaining any weight. I’m excited about next week, when our gym opens back up.
I was doing better with my diet when I was recanting everything I was eating on the blog here. But I thought that was boring to read, so I cut it out. Maybe I should get started again.
Great Mexican/Peruvian Food in Lancaster, PA
Today I ate fairly well, but was ruined by a dinner out suffered a setback at dinner. We took Kim’s mother to El Sereno in Lancaster, PA for her birthday. El Sereno is one of our favorite restaurants, making great Mexican and Peruvian food. My favorite dish there is “pollo fundido” — grilled chicken with cheese, wrapped in tortilla dough and covered in cheese sauce. It’s awesome stuff. They used to serve it deep fried, chimichanga style, but recently started simply grilling the stuffed tortilla. I guess that’s healthy, and I had it that way once (they got me by surprise). Since then, I actually ask them to deep fry it like they used to. Because it tastes better that way. Mmmm.
(I wonder if anyone trying to diet will mistakenly come to my site, read that last paragraph, get hungry, and then run out to Taco Bell for a fix. Poor guys.)
Weigh Yourself Everyday
I promised to address some of the things that came up during the Calacanis Cast that I didn’t get a chance to talk about. One of them was when our buddy Tim Elliott mentioned that he only weighs himself every other day. Some people weigh themselves less often. One reason given for these less frequent weigh-ins is that one wants to ignore the day-to-day fluctuations in weight due to things like water retention, how long it’s been since your last #2, or how long your hair is, etc.
They make a fair point. People shouldn’t get caught up on one or two pounds here or there day-to-day. If you’ve gained one pound from yesterday, you don’t want to get discouraged and … who knows what. If you’ve lost one pound since yesterday, you don’t want to get too cocky and reward yourself with a cheesesteak. By weighing yourself just once a week, instead of every day, you give yourself more time to REALLY lose weight so you can trust your weigh-ins more. Not really.
I mean first of all, I’m only on track to lose about 1lb a week. My weight fluctuates 2-4 lbs each day (besides the past few days of very consistent weight ins). I can make progress in a week and still weigh in higher.
But the real reason I like to weigh myself everyday is that I need to be able to make immediate adjustments. I can’t wait one week to find out that I’ve been gaining weight. I need to know right away to fix my leaks and get back on track.
So how can I tell if I’m getting off track without being deceived by my daily fluctuations? I use a Google gagdet called the Google 15, which tracks my weight day-to-day and also graphs for me the 15-day moving average of my weight. The moving average shows how my weight is trending (just like with moving averages on stock charts). If my current weight is above my 15-day moving average, I am risking reversing trend. If my current weight is below my 15-day moving average, I’m in good shape (hehe).
I don’t mean to nag on Tim. Every other day might be often enough to check your weight. You can’t do too much damage in one day. And Tim seems to be doing very well with his system, losing 8 pounds so far since he started fat blogging. So I’d say stick with what’s working. I’m a big proponent of doing what works for YOU.
Still, using a program like Google 15 to track your weight and moving average can help you stay on track by giving you an early detection warning. Check it out. It’s fun and challenging keeping those little dots below my moving average. Anything to turn my weight loss into a video game is going to help me get fitter!